Architect Arata Isozaki began an essay in Issey Miyake's East Meets West with the question, "What are clothes?" The question, perhaps too fundamental and unnecessary for most designers, is the matrix of Issey Miyake's clothing. Possibly more than any other designer of the 20th or 21st centuries, Miyake inquired into the nature of apparel, investigating adornment and dress functions from all parts of the world and from all uses and in all forms, to speculate about clothing. Aroused to question fashion's viability in the social revolution he observed in Paris in 1968, Miyake sought a clothing of particular lifestyle utility, of renewed coalition with textile integrity, and of wholly reconsidered form. In exploring ideas emanating from the technology of cloth, Miyake created great geometric shaping and the most effortless play of drapery on the bias to accommodate body motion since his paragon Madeleine Vionnet.

Miyake's highly successful Windcoats wrap the wearer in an abundance of cloth but also generate marvelously transformative shapes when compressed or billowing and extended. In these efforts, Miyake created garments redolent of human history but largely unprecedented in the history of dress. As a visionary, he often seemed to abandon commercial ideas of dress for more extravagantly new and ideal experiments, such as a 1976 knit square with sleeves, which became a coat with matching bikini; or fall/winter 1989-90 pleated collection which was a radical cubist vision of the human body and of its movement. Miyake has also worked with traditional kimonos, and has even experimented with paper and other materials to find the right medium for apparel. Despite unusual and some thoroughly utopian ideals, Miyake appeals to a clientéle of forward thinkers and designers who wear his clothing with the same zeal and energy from which they were created.

Miyake gives his work interpretative issues and contexts that contribute to their meaning, acknowledging the garments as prolific signs. His two earliest books East Meets West (Tokyo, 1978) and Bodyworks (Tokyo, 1983), were both accompanied by museum exhibitions of his many creations. Miyake can be anthropologically basic; again and again, he returns to tattooing as a basic body adornment, rendered in clothing and tights and bodysuits. He relishes the juxtaposition between the most rustic and basic and the most advanced, almost to prove human history a circle rather a linear progression. No other designer—with the possible exception of the more laconic Geoffrey Beene, for whom Miyake worked briefly and with whom he maintains a mutual admiration—interprets his work as deliberately and thoughtfully as Miyake.

Such allusiveness and context would have little value were it not for the abiding principles of Miyake's work. He relies upon the body as unerringly as a dancer might. He demands a freedom of motion that reveals its genesis in 1968. If Miyake's concept of the body is the root of all of his thinking, it is a highly conceptual, reasoned body. His books have customarily shown friends and clients—young and old— wearing his clothing. They come from East and West; they do not possess a perfect anatomy or the streamlined physique of body sculptures, but they are in some way ideals to Miyake.

Miyake's works have placed him in the worlds of both clothing designer and artist. His designs explore space and natural forms but are grounded in the understanding that they are to be worn. They exist in one form, only to be transformed when a body gives the piece a third dimension. This transforming power is evident in the endless variations of his pleats collection, which first appeared in his 1989 and was expanded into the Pleats Please line in 1993. Garments were constructed first and then pleated, a reversal of the standard process. Huge garments made of lightweight polyester were fed into a pleating machine and the resulting clothing was easy to wash, quick to dry, and wrinkle-resistant. This practicality reflected Miyake's dedication to the universality of his designs and proved to be a great commercial success. He opened the first Pleats Please store in SoHo in 1998, and the line is one of his most widely recognized.

Miyake's continual questioning and exploration of his own work led to another revolutionary concept in clothing design—mass-produced clothes designed to be individualized by each wearer. In 1999 he introduced the A-POC line, an abbreviation for A Piece of Cloth. In this line, the wearer takes scissors to a section of a continuous knitted tube with cutting guides to fashion her own garment, varying hem, sleeve lengths, and the neckline. The first store dedicated to the A-POC line opened in Tokyo in 1999. The A-POC line is but one example of how Miyake's designs originate with the fabric. His fascination with textiles continues to be the springboard for his work; whether the textiles are natural or synthetic, handwoven or high tech, Miyake transforms fabric into clothing that brings its wearer the joy of beauty and movement.

—Richard Martin;

updated by Janette Goff Dixon

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Miyake, Issey

Encyclopedia of World Biography
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Issey Miyake

One of the world's most innovative fashion designers, Issey Miyake (born 1939) experimented with new fabrics and textile producing technology to create an artistic blend of Eastern and Western influences.

Miyake is considered the first Asian fashion designer to gain renown worldwide. Known for blending the flowing fabrics and textile designs of the East with modern technology and production methods of the West, he experimented with natural and synthetic fibers and advanced textile science. The winner of nearly every fashion award, he is known to dislike the title "fashion designer" and prefers to be considered an artist whose medium is fabric. Two of Miyake's most popular lines are the Pleats Please prints that are permanently pleated yet flexible, and A-POC (A Piece of Cloth), a single, ready-to-wear piece of clothing. The Issey Miyake label also appears on numerous non-clothing items, including perfume, hosiery, and home furnishings.

Interested in Art and Design

Miyake was born in 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan, and was seven years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on that city during World War II. His mother, a teacher, was badly burned by the bombing and died four years later of complications. In an illness unrelated to the bomb, Miyake suffered from a bone-marrow disease at age ten. Ironically, it was the American occupation in Japan that gave Miyake an introduction to western culture.

Miyake's interests turned to the artistic even as a child, and with dreams of being a dancer and an artist, he took an interest in the pictures of fashions in his sister's glamour magazines. Admiring the way clothes could drape the human body to make a statement, he decided instead to become a fashion designer, even though it was considered a woman's profession. When he entered university and obtained Western magazines, he was inspired by the fashion photographs of Richard Avendon, as well as the images of Hiro and Andy Warhol.

In 1959 Miyake entered the prestigious Tama Art University in Tokyo, majoring in graphic arts. During school he showed his designs for the first time in a theatrical event called, "A Poem in Cloth and Stone," and his showing reflected his view of fashion as art. Miyake graduated from Tama in 1964, and the next year he moved to Paris to learn the art of haute couture.

Studied Haute Couture in Paris

In Paris, Miyake studied at the Syndicat de la Couture, then scored an apprenticeship as assistant designer for Guy Laroche from 1966-68. When Hubert de Givenchy offered him a position in his house of design, Miyake took it and, at Givenchy's suggestion, stayed for at least a year so he could learn the trade. Miyake worked sketching hundreds of designs that were sent to clients all over the world, including the duchess of Windsor and Audrey Hepburn.

Miyake was in Paris during the student riots of 1968, and traveled to the Sorbonne and the Place de l"Odeon to hear their protests. He sympathized with the hippie movement and the social unrest resulting from rigid tradition. Already tired of the haute couture style, Miyake decided he wanted to make clothes for everyday people. He told writer Dana Thomas in Newsweek, "I became a fashion designer to make clothes for the people, not to be a top couturier in the French tradition."

Ready to branch out on his own, he first moved to New York City where he worked as an assistant designer for Geoffrey Beene, who proved to be his creative mentor. Miyake also attended classes at Columbia University and Hunter College. He reveled in New York culture, telling Ingrid Sischy in Interview, "I felt like I was arriving at some very cosmopolitan city of the future. . . . It was the height of the hippie era . . . that was a fascinating time."

Working with European and American designers had taught Miyake a way of viewing fashion that stood in contrast to that of his Japanese culture, which held no distinction between fabric and body shape. In contrast to the loose fitting kimono of Japan, the Western view placed an ideal human body shape at the center of ever-changing fashions around it. Miyake was determined to form his own avant-garde approach to design. He remained true to his vision which embraced a union of traditional artistic concepts with modern freedom, energy, and technology.

Opened Miyake Design Studio

In 1970 Miyake left New York to return to Tokyo where he founded the Miyake Design Studio. Noting the depressed economy in the United States at the time, he recalled to Sischy that in Japan, "There was the air of possibility. . . . I began to think, I should start something on my own. . . . I sensed something new happening on the street." His new studio became his sanctuary where he could explore new directions in the fashion world. An innovator in textile science, he developed new techniques for making clothes and experimented with different blends of fabric and textiles based on traditional Japanese designs. He brought some of his new pieces to Bloomingdale's, which gave him exposure by offering him a small section of the store for his displays.

Miyake's global career took off when, in 1971, he showed his first collection in Tokyo and then shortly thereafter in the new Japan House Gallery in New York. The true test of success was presenting a show in Paris, which he did for the first time in 1973. It was an instant hit. During his career, he would be consistently listed by French trade papers as one of the top 10 designers.

Throughout the 1970s, Miyake continued to experiment with a variety of Eastern design elements. He incorporated the Japanese themes of harmony, simplicity, and humility to produce innovative work. He created new concepts based on traditional Japanese processes, designs, and dress styles, such as the kimono and sashiko coat. He also found time in 1978 to publish a picture book, East Meets West, which collected his best designs. In 1979 he opened a design company in France, followed by one in the United States in 1982.

Fashion as Art

Miyake continued to work during the 1980s at his design studio in Tokyo, creating affordable cloths that were also practical. He experimented with natural and synthetic fibers, such as traditional Japanese oil-soaked paper, as well as nylon monofilament and molded silicone. He was the first to use ultrasuede and explored new weaving and dyeing techniques. Miyake also delved into other areas of artistic expression, such as presenting his "Bodyworks" exhibit at museums in Tokyo, San Francisco, and London. He also worked on design concepts with choreographer William Forsythe of the Frankfurt Ballet in 1988 and created pleated jackets for the Lithuanian team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

In 1992, Miyake entered the perfume market with the launch of L'Eau d'Issey. Critics praised the line of perfumes for its clean, fresh, minimal scents. The inspiration for Miyake's fragrances was Japanese culture's emphasis on pure water and bathing. The perfume bottle's conical shape and brushed-steel tip were based on the Eiffel Tower, which Miyake had admired in Paris. Miyake also released a line of body care products, lotions, and creams.

Miyake took a step back from his work in the early 1990s to backpack through Greece. Packing lightly, he found he could do well with only minimal items such as underwear and socks. This experience generated the thought that he should produce easy-to-care-for fabrics that people can wash and wear and travel with.

Launched Pleats Please

In 1993, fulfilling his wish and following five years of research, Miyake launched his flagship design concept: pleats. His permanently pleated clothes were meant to be functional, universal for the modern buyer, and accessible to a wide market. The pleats were made using Miyake's innovative fabric technology. Single pieces of 100-percent polyester fabric were cut and sewn two- to three-times larger than the finished product. The pieces were heat pressed between two sheets of paper, a process that simultaneously created a permanent pleat, in either a vertical, horizontal, or zig-zag pattern, and created texture and form. Offered in a variety of seasonal colors, the clothes were light, flexible, and easy to care for.

Around this time, Miyake brought in several colleagues to assume some of his responsibilities and thus allow the designer to free himself for more innovative research. Naoki Takizawa took over the design duties of the Miyake line of men's and women's collections. In 1995, designer Dai Fujiwara joined Miyake's studio to provide input on creative engineering of manufacturing processes. The addition of these capable new talents allowed Miyake to become an artistic director overseeing all the products that bore his name.

In 1998, Miyake participated in a unique exhibit, "Making Things," at the Foundation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris. The show presented a 30-year retrospective of Miyake's fashions as art and celebrated his collaborations with artists, dancers, and photographers, as well as his experimentations with textiles and technology.

Invented A-POC Clothing Line

Continuing to explore ways to create inexpensive clothing for everyday people, Miyake in 1999 developed a revolutionary process of manufacturing shirts and dresses from a single piece of cloth that required no sewing. A-POC, which stands for "A Piece of Cloth," was co-created by textile engineer Fujiwara, who used modern computers in conjunction with traditional technology. In the A-POC process, thread goes into the loom and is woven by a machine programmed by the computer. A continuous tube of fabric emerges with the design of a garment already printed on it and with the seams already sewn together. The clothing then only has to be cut along a faint outline on the fabric, which won't fray or unravel. Buyers can customize their garment by cutting the sleeves, skirts, and necklines to their desired length. Miyake said this customization option allows wearers to participate in the design and production of their own cloths. The A-POC process was also applied to fashion accessories, and even a beanbag chair and sofa.

Honored around the World

During his prolific career, Miyake has been honored by many in the design and fashion world. In 2001, the City of Toronto honored him as a world leader in a festival of creative genius, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London hosted an exhibit titled, "What Is Radical Fashion," which displayed the work of revolutionary and influential designers around the world, including Miyake. For Miyake's part, he told Julie Dam in Time Asia: "I would be very happy if it was said of me that I had provided some keys to the 21st century. All I can do is to keep experimenting, keep developing my thoughts further. Certain people think that the definition of design is the beauty or the useful, but in my own work, I want to integrate feelings, emotion. You have to put life into it."

Miyake, Issey

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Issey Miyake, 1938–, Japanese fashion designer, b. Hiroshima, grad. Tama Art Univ., Tokyo, 1964. He came to Paris in 1965 and designed for Guy Laroche (1966–68) and Givenchy (1968–69) before moving to New York City and Geoffrey Beene (1969–70). Miyake opened his own design studio in 1970, and quickly established a reputation for an avant-garde approach with his fluid, unstructured designs in unusual, texturally varied natural and synthetic fabrics. Influenced by both traditional Japanese and Western design, particularly the work of Vionnet, his stylized garments are often layered and loose, wrapped and tied around the body in a variety of geometric configurations. Since working with the Frankfurt Ballet in 1988, Miyake also has used many kinds of pleated fabrics in a number of inventive designs.